“We have decided to turn our backs on Russian fossil fuels and turn to our reliable energy partners,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Bucharest.
The financial and technical framework of the agreement was not specified in the statement published by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on the sidelines of a meeting between the various signatory parties.
The agreement stipulates that the construction site will be opened in September 2023 for operation as soon as possible in 2029.
The cable is 1,195 km long and is almost entirely covered by the Black Sea.
The cable should link Azerbaijan and Hungary through Georgia and Romania.
“We are preparing to build the longest submarine electric cable,” said the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine last February, the European Union has doubled its strategic partnerships with various producing countries in an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that the matter is related to “our contribution to European energy security” and to “a new bridge between the European Union and Azerbaijan.”
The cable represents “a new path full of opportunities” for Georgia, “a country with a European destination” that could become an “energy hub”, according to von der Leyen.
The European Commission president added that it would make it possible to transmit electricity “to our neighbors such as Moldova and Ukraine and contribute to the modernization of the Ukrainian energy system.”
The agreement covers other areas of cooperation, such as “new energy technologies”, “hydrogen production” and “expansion of transport infrastructure”, according to a statement from the Romanian presidency.
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